Redang and Redang Kalong Part 3

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

Speeding over the water to our first dive with the sun breaking through the clouds
Got so lucky with this shot. Could not have wished or staged a better position. The two divers descending with the sunburst in between them and the bubbles from other divers at the lower right corner of the pic. I just whipped around on my back as I was descending , saw the shot and snapped it.An anemonefish guarding it's eggs. The little red dots at the bottom by the side of the anemone are it's eggs. They fan it periodically to run fresh water and oxygen over them

A curious batfish. And trust me, they're REALLY KPC. They follow you everywhere but when you look at them with some interest they FEIGN disinterest and pretend to swim away. But the minute you turn away back they come following you.

Bunch of divers

Yellow boxfish

Another type of anemonefish - yup, you guessed right, they're related to Nemo

Blue spotted Ray related to Unkaleong's Manta - these are quite common and the largest one I saw was around 32cm

Gorgeous little flatworm - these f'lers are only about 3 to 4 cm long

A Blue Marble Ray (I think) - he was around 1 to 1.3 m accross

A comet fish - notice the big fake eye which is at one end of the fish while his real eye is at the other end - fakes predators out

Starry Puffer - big bugger - about 0.8m in length

Nudibranch with it's eggs

Redang and Redang Kalong Part 2

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

As we determinedly - "determinedly" because my body was still struggling to roll out of bed while I was at the dive centre - pulled on our wetsuits and prepared for the pre-dive briefing, I was fumbling to regain the rhythm of the dive again.
Wetsuit on-booties on-mask, check- weight belt with weights, check-fins, check-pointer, check-underwater casing, check and checked in a tub of water for superficial leaks-BCD, check-regulator attached in the correct orientation, check, buddy, check. Definitely quite a checklist to go through before even stepping on the boat.

At Redang Kalong they're very helpful. I would even venture to say that they spoil us. The tanks are lugged to the boat for you. All you have to do is carry your own BCD, Regulator, Weight belt, Mask, Fins, and Snorkel onto the dive boat. As an extra precaution, the empty underwater casing for our camera came with me. Rather than risk the camera wholesale, I was advised to take the empty case down to test it first.

Obviously, that first dive without a camera meant that we'd see all the big pelagics. After all, that's Murphy's Law. First a Black tip reef about 5 to 6ft long, then a white tip reef shark, a little smaller.

In a way, it all worked out well. After 8 to 9 months of not diving my buoyancy was not up to par yet and with 4 weights I was sinking like the proverbial rock. Making a mental note to remove a weight from the weight belt - and being very pleased about it - we surfaced with ample air and an anticipation for what tomorrows' dives would bring!

Redang and Redang Kalong Part 1

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

The sun was peeping over the horizon as we pulled into the ramshackle jetty hamlet of Merang.
Along the way, the CRV's small fuel tank conjured up images of having to traipse up and down pitch black highways lugging canisters of fuel. So, it was with much relief that we found a petrol station servicing late night lorries. Other than that little bit of excitement to prop the eyes open during our 130am to 7am drive, my other source of entertainment was listening to Allan, Adeline, and Godson, Jeremy snore!Travelling up with Lenard in his Volvo T5 was a blast. Trying to keep up in our CRV wasn't. You can barely see his tail lights in the pic above. I need a Golf GTI. Anyone wanna donate towards a worthy cause? ;-)

By the time we pulled in to Merang Jetty we were totally ready for a feast of carbs and that's exactly what happened. Found the nearest Nasi Lemak shop and dug in to hot rice and sambal with chicken curry. Nothing like something spicy and suspect (hygiene wise) to stir the soul and the flagging body.

Riding the waves was a bit of an experience for our city slicker Godson though. He's got something like 5% body fat and he works out. As such, his arse bore the brunt of the speedboat pounding the waves as we sped toward the resort. Poor boy! That's what you get for low body fat. ;-)
As we disembarked onto a smaller sampan to take us in, I could feel the adrenalin rush of the entire journey begin to fade. My eyes felt like someone had attached weights to them. And I was looking forward to a long nap before a dive in the afternoon.

Allan napping...he's so adorable when he sleeps